Early on Wednesday, oil prices increased slightly as OPEC maintained its projections for strong global fuel demand growth, which outweighed worries over another price hike. After surprisingly rising consumer prices in August, the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates the following week.
As of 0116 GMT, Brent crude futures were up 3 cents to $93.20 a barrel after ending the previous day 0.9% lower. American West Texas Intermediate crude went up 10 cents, or 0.1%, to $87.41 per barrel.
The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) reaffirmed its predictions for the rise of the world’s oil consumption in 2022 and 2023 on Tuesday, saying indications that major economies were performing better than anticipated despite challenges, including rising inflation.
According to OPEC’s monthly report, oil demand will rise by 3.1 million barrels per day (bpd) in 2022 and by 2.7 million bpd in 2023, maintaining its previous projections.
Additionally, helping oil prices were claims that the U.S. According to ANZ Research analysts, the Biden administration was thinking of replenishing its strategic oil store and lowering market expectations for a resumption of the 2015 nuclear deal between the West and Iran.
However, a hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation report on Tuesday that shattered hopes that the Fed could cut back its rate policy tightening in the coming months weighed on oil and financial markets.
The Federal Reserve will meet next Tuesday and Wednesday with inflation still running well above the 2% target established by the US central bank.
The American Petroleum Institute said on Wednesday that U.S. oil stockpiles increased by nearly 6 million barrels for the week ending September 9.
